Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Expanding Holmes: Review of Sherlock Bones, vol. 3

As I said when I reviewed volumes 1 and 2 of this manga,
this series requires a “leap of faith” to accepts the series’ wild premise. Japanese
schoolboy Takeru adopted a puppy who turned out to be the reincarnation of
Sherlock Holmes, who informs the boy that he is in fact Watson. And the pair
help Takeru’s father and sister, both police officers, solve crimes.

The core of this volume is the 4-part A Golfer’s Glory.
Takeru joins his family to play golf for the first time, and meet up with a
pair of professional golfers who happen to be playing at the same time. The dog
witnesses one of the pros kill his rival, and he and Takeru work out how to
prove it. The case turns on details revealed in photographs taken during the
round.

Photography also plays a key role in the final story, which
is a cliffhanger, concluding in the next volume.A candidate for student body president has photo-shopped
his opponent into a compromising positiong, abut Sherdog believes he can prove
the guilty party!

The volume also contains a one-off “Sherdog at home” story,
and a 3-parter about a suspicious suicide. That one turns on a series of math
equations that the killer, an after-school tutor, had taught Takeru (and
Sherdog) in their past tutoring sessions. Oh, the irony.

This volume seemed more plot-heavy than the prior two. There
was less of Sherdog as pt-upon English gentleman, or Takeru’s crush on his
longtime friend Miki. And Takeru’s sister Airin only appears in one story,
reducing the amount of “Irene Adler” daydreaming for the dog. I hope that these
do not represent the series’ moving away from its base in the lore of Sherlock
Holmes.

All of these stories involve school or family drama in one
way or another, in addition to the Holmesian mysteries. So there is the
potential for melodrama, and if a reader is not in the mood for that, or for
the manga-style art, this might not be the read for them. But if the wacky
premise doesn’t stop you, the content can be quite enjoyable.